Posts tagged "lgbt"

India's Supreme Court has ruled that transgender folks have a right to identify as "third gender" or hijra. The ruling also directs the government to provide trans folks in India with quotas in education and jobs and to ensure they have adequate medical care in hospitals. Both Nepal and Bangladesh also recognize third genders. […

The reality show "RuPaul's Drag Race" announced it will no longer use the word "she-male," a slur against transgender folks. They also promised to quit doing a segment called "Female or She-male?" in which contestants had to guess, based on a photograph, whether a they were looking at a cisgender woman (someone who identifies with…

The historic Stonewall Riot, which took place at the Stonewall Inn in New York City on June 28, 1969, is being made into a big screen film starring easy-on-the-eyes actor Jeremy Irvine ("War Horse," "Great Expectations"). The film will follow the police raid on the West Village bar, which was a gathering place for gay, lesbia…

Laura Jane Klug, a fifth grade substitute teacher for Lumberton Independent School District in Texas who also happens to be transgender, was suspended on Tuesday after parents complained to the school. According to one Lumberton father: "If it does affect my child and his ability to learn or if it causes questions that I don't…

The Internet has been abuzz lately with Tumblr blogs like I, Too, Am Harvard and I, Too, Am Oxford, which focused on the experiences of students of color amongst the mostly white populations at elite universities. Mostly the signs highlight ignorant remarks based on stereotypes students have been subjected to. Here'…

"I remember being really conscious of not wanting to fight with another black woman on camera. I did an interview and the producers were like, “Well, this [other black woman on the show] said this about you. What do you have to say about that?” And I said I’m not fighting with another black woma…

Guinness and Heineken have pulled their sponsorship from the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City over the parade's exclusion of LGBTQ folks. Sam Adams also pulled out of the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Boston this weekend. NYC's new mayor Bill de Blasio is also boycotting the parade over their exclusionary…

“I’m really attracted to you, you know?” I sat in the middle of an Italian restaurant, frozen in disbelief at this audacious declaration. I sipped some wine and awkwardly laughed, my cheeks growing redder by the minute. Waiters and waitresses drifted past. I nibbled a tiramisu and drank another glass of rosé. But all I…

After 27 seasons of almost painful heterosexuality, we were not optimistic that either "The Bachelor" or "The Bachelorette" would introduce a gay or lesbian contestant. I mean, it took them this long to finally have a Latino "Bachelor." And in an interview this weekend with The New York Times Magazine, longtime host Chri…

South Carolina legislators are trying to "punish" two colleges in the state for assigning books they don't approve of. The College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina Upstate incorporated "books on homosexuality" as required reading as part of their new student orientation. The books in question are Alison Bechdel's graphic novel memoir…

Is there anything funnier (sad-funny, I mean) than bigots who are completely incredulous about the fact that they are bigots? They are so unwilling to admit it. They usually have some other excuse — which only makes sense to them — about "disagreeing with lifestyle choices," "some of my best friends are ___," "sexism/racism/homophobia doesn't…

Happy Valentine's Day, sinners and sodomites! Yesterday, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that the state's 2006 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. The ban is in violation of the equal protection and due process clauses in the United States Constitution's 14th amendment. Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen's wrote in the ruling, "Our Constitutio…

The gender options on Facebook have worked well enough for those of us who identify as "male" or "female." But what about folks who wish to publicly identify as something else? Until now, their only option has been to leave that option blank or be mis-gendered. After working with LGBTQ activists, Facebook announced…

If there was one thing Piers Morgan got right in his interview with writer Janet Mock last night, it was when he called her, “brave, frank, and honest” about coming out as transgender. Sadly, the interview sort of falls apart after that. From almost the start of the interview, the header “Was a boy until…

New York City's new mayor Bill de Blasio announced he will boycott the St. Patrick's Day parade, the largest in the nation, because of the organizers' ban on pro-gay banners and signs. De Blasio is the first-ever NYC mayor to decline participation in the parade. [ABC News] Louisiana has scrapped its kinda…

After being the subject of a 2011 Marie Claire profile, writer and activist Janet Mock decided to tell her story in her own words. And what a story it is. Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, is out this week. It's a brave, honest and gripping memoir…

"American Horror Story: Coven" star Gabourey Sidibe is the latest celebrity to use a verboten transphobic slur — although in Gabby's case, she used it while speaking out about police profiling and harassment against transgender folks.

This June, the Supreme Court ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional in a case called Windsor v. United States. The woman behind the nation-changing lawsuit is Edith Windsor, an 84-year-old lesbian whose spouse, Thea Spyer, died in 2009. The ladies got engaged in 1967 and for 40 years they stayed near-secretly…

Transgender actress Laverne Cox, who plays Sophia, the trans woman on "Orange Is The New Black," and model Carmen Carrera appeared yesterday on "Katie" and Katie Couric kept pushing the issue of their genitalia. Fast foward to 2 minutes and 45 seconds into this video where Laverne explains to Katie what focusing o…

CeCe McDonald, a transgender Black woman who was sentenced to 41 months in a men's prison, will be released. CeCe was attacked in Minneapolis by a group of people yelling racist and bigoted slurs, one of whom also threw a drink at her. CeCe stabbed and killed one of the men and claimed self-defense. She…

Simply Irresistible

Taking a page out of those girls you went to high school with who can't stop smugly posting every detail of their perfect lives on Facebook, Lady Gaga shaded America's youngest grandma Taylor Swift just perfectly on Twitter yesterday. It all started when Jaime King's unborn child's godmother tweeted about Gaga, using the preferred…

Oh look, it's hottest DILF alive, Ryan Gosling, making a rare appearance in public grabbing lunch in LA today. And what's that I see? In addition to his perfectly worn T-shirt (that collar is stretched just so), hoodie and leather jacket, the Gos is rocking a few faint letters on his knuckles, spelling out the…